2006 Holocaust and Genocide Studies Internship In Lidice By Daniel Roberts ’07 2006 Summer Internship Sponsored by the Aurthur and Rochelle Belfer Scholarship in Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Museum Director Anchov Marinov and I at a conference on Azer-Czech Relations

Lidice before and after June 10, 1942 The Soviet designed plaza the overlooks the reverent area in Lidice The Location of the Lidice Memorial and Museum The Lidice Museum which houses the multimedia exhibition on the June 10 th Tragedy Lidice Pamatnik Lidice My Internship in Lidice The village of Lidice lies roughly 11 kilometers from Prague, the With a funds provided by the Aurthur and Rochelle once capital of Czechoslovakia and now the Czech Republic. “The Lidice Memorial and Belfer Scholarship in Holocaust and Genocide Studies I The town itself can be dated back to the early 1300s and was able during the summer of 2006 to intern at the eventually became a suburb for working class people working in Museum” Lidice Memorial and Museum. While working for the the mines and steel works of the nearby city of Kladno. However The first of many memorials to the people of Lidice was initially Museum I resided in “new” Lidice, the town built in June of 1942 this small Bohemian village gained international constructed when the Soviet Army occupied Czechoslovakia in 1945. adjacent to the memorial, were I met many interesting fame as a site of horrific Nazi brutality. It was a large cross with a crown of barbed wire placed over the mass people and learned a great deal about Czech life and On May 27, 1942 Jan Gubis and Jozef Gabcik, two Czech grave of the Lidice men. Memorials were added periodically over the culture. Working at the museum provided me the unique parachutists trained in Great Britain, attacked and mortally next 50 years culminating in a memorial to the Lidice children and all opportunity to learn about the many facets of museum wounded the Reich’s Protector Reinhard Heydrich, otherwise the children victimized by the Second World War installed in 1989, it management and meet a number of foreign diplomats known as the Butcher of Prague for his merciless assault on the is the largest of its kind in the world. and scholars. Czech resistance. Heydrich died on June 4, 1942 and received Along with the many memorial additions the museum has also The “new” Lidice is a very small town by American an extravagant Nazi funereal. Hitler seeking to retaliate against experienced ideological changes over its now 62 year history. During standards having only about 500 residents and the Czechs for what he saw as a flagrant and dangerous act the Soviet domination of Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1989 a grand comprising an area of about 4 square blocks. Every day which if not dealt with properly might inflame more resistance plaza was built overlooking the reverent area where the town once on my walk from the Lidice Gallery, small art gallery retaliated. stood. This plaza presents a visual record of the Lidice tragedy on a which houses the administrative offices of the Lidice Based on some faulty intelligence the Nazi authority believed relief displaying the horrors of June 10 and culminating in the rebirth memorial and dormitorys for visiting students and the parachutists to be two servicemen who fled to Great Britain of Lidice under the promise offered by Soviet Communism. During scholars, to the Memorial along June 10, 1942 street, Honor Guard at the June 10, 2006 memorial service from Lidice. Hitler ordered the complete destruction of Lidice. this period Lidice was as an example of the suffering created by named for the date of the Lidice tragedy. The town has All of the town’s men were summarily executed, the towns western imperialism. The surviving widows of Lidice became the its own city hall, post office, police station and sokol , an women were sent to the Terezin concentration camp, the virtuous women of the socialist revolution and every year on June 10 athletic clubhouse which manages the local fotbol fields younger children were given to German familys and the older thousands of people convened in Lidice where high ranking members and serves food and beer to spectators. children died in the gas chambers of Chelmno in Poland. The of the Czech Communist party made magnanimous speeches. While employed at the museum I preformed many town, church, and cemetery were all destroyed. The Nazi However when Soviet authority ended in 1989 the museum fell into different tasks ranging from the ceremonial reception of authoritys even the streams diverted the streams through town. disfavor primarily because of its close association with the honored guests to the practical constructing and The carnage did not stop with Lidice as the town of Lezaky was Communist party. dismantling of exhibitions. On an everyday basis I destroyed two weeks later. In 2001 however the Lidice Memorial was taken under the wing of the assisted with the sale of tickets to the museum and dealt The Nazis openly reveled in Lidice’s destruction in an attempt to Czech Republics Ministry of Culture and began to once again receive with English speaking visitors. On several occasions I intimidate any future resistance movements in the Czech regular government funding. Since then the memorial and museum acted as a tour guide for Lidice English speaking guests. The Lidice Memorial Republic. However outside of Nazi occupied Europe Lidice have been restored along with the incredible rose garden found During the remembrance ceremony which is held became a battle cry for the allies and served as an early example adjacent to the memorial. Part of this restoration process was the annually on June 10 it was also my responsibility to of Nazi brutality. Towns were renamed Lidice in the United creation of a multimedia exhibition which presents the horror of the receive foreign dignitaries including the US Ambassador States and Brazil in an attempt to show solidarity with the June 10, 1942 massacre that took place in Lidice and also the creation to the Czech Republic. I was also fortunate to participate Czechs. “Lidice shall live” was the mantra of Dr Barnett Stross, of a special exhibition room to display traveling historical and in conferences including a meeting of a coalition on a British Minister of Parliament, who became a staunch contemporary exhibitions focusing on both the waging of war and Czech-Azerbaijani relations. In my final weeks at the supporter of rebuilding Lidice after the war and establishing it peace and reconciliation. museum I was also enlisted to electronically record and as a place of peace and reflection. After the war Lidice was organize artifacts for the Lidice Archive which will soon indeed rebuilt near the location of the original town which had b available online to scholars and historians. become a place of Czech national suffering and remembrance.

Memorial to the Murdered Children of Lidice and the Children Victimized by the Second World War The Lidice Tragedy Multimedia Exhibition More photos of the multimedia exhibition